


fire your shots

by 11paruline44



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: F/M, Gen, I didn't think this was going to be as angsty as it is, Phic Phight 2019, Team Ghost, oh well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 06:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18310157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/11paruline44/pseuds/11paruline44
Summary: Phic Phight 2019: Team GhostBased on a prompt by cyroclastic. Danny has spent hours worrying about what he'd do if anyone found out his secret, but he's caught completely off guard when, after a tough fight, it's Valerie's secret that's exposed—to Paulina, no less. Can Danny protect Valerie from the queen bee's wrath without sacrificing his own secret in the process?





	fire your shots

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is kind of growing a bit of a life of its own, lol. Still not 100% sure I'm taking it in the Gray Ghost direction, but I tagged it as such just in case. You can find me on tumblr at skulking-around-the-phandom. Go Team Ghost!

“DUCK!”

Danny’s face hit the dirt with an _oomph_ as a mechanical arm whizzed by his head, snapping and whirring in an ominous manner. Grateful, Danny turned his head, hoping to give a quick nod to whoever had just helped him out…

Until he saw who it was. Danny gritted his teeth as he hovered up from the ground, shooting an ectoblast in the direction of Technus’s latest robotic form to keep it at bay. “Go home, Paulina,” he shouted, risking a glance over his shoulder in the hope that, for once, she’d listen.

No such luck—this time, the dratted Instagram queen appeared to be filming on her phone. Danny bit back a groan as he dodged another snapping robotic arm. _Great._ Now he had not one, not two, but _three_ problems on hand. All he needed now was for his parents to show up, and then Danny’s miserable existence would be complete. 

Suddenly, a decidedly pink ray of destruction shot past, inches from Danny’s ear. Biting back a curse, Danny retaliated with a vague blast of ice in the direction of the red-clad ghost hunter from which it had come. And there was problem number two. Valerie. Danny swooped into a rolling dive, slipping underneath Technus’s bot to avoid further fire from the Red Huntress while shooting a couple of ecto-blasts up at its underbelly. See, if Valerie, who also, conveniently, happened to be his ex, would either just drop her ghost hunting altogether, or finally listen to reason and quit her obstinate vendetta against all ghost kind, maybe this fight could have been over fifteen minutes ago. But _nooo,_ she just had to—

Pain shot through Danny’s shoulder, knocking him off course and into a nearby tree. Tangled amidst the branches, Danny cursed as he twisted his body in an attempt to view his injury. A clean shot from an ecto-gun—must have been Val’s work. Danny groaned. He was going to have to patch this one up later. 

“You just shot him, you bitch!” a shrill voice cried. Danny squinted at the scene in the park he’d left behind. Paulina, damn her, had drawn even closer to the ghost fight to make her displeasure known, almost directly beneath where Val had gotten herself clutched in Technus’s robot claws. Danny phased through the tree branches and gave his head a quick shake to keep himself alert. Really, he did not ask for this crap. 

“Out of the way,” Danny yelled at Paulina. Firing up a ball of ecto-energy in his palm, he shot towards the massive, round core of Tenchnus’s form and punched as hard as he could, hoping the combination of the blunt force and the explosion would distract Technus enough to drop Val. The blast sent Danny careening backwards, along with a throbbing ache through the spot where he’d been shot, but thankfully, it seemed to hurt Technus more, the robot rearing back in pain as it lost its grip around Valerie’s middle. Taking advantage of his momentary victory, Danny flew back towards Technus and began icing up the robot’s circuits. 

“You’re welcome!” Danny called back in Val’s direction.

“As if I’d thank you, ghost,” came the response.

Danny snorted as he ducked behind Technus to avoid a couple of Val’s shots. He really had a thankless job, didn’t he. “Just trying to save your ass,” he retorted.

“No one’s saving anyone today,” Technus’s voice filtered through the mouthpiece of his latest creation. “This is the day that I, Technus, shall seize control of all the washing machines in the world and—“

A streak of pink ecto–energy sparked through the robot’s face, cutting Technus’s speech short. Danny grinned at the muffled complaints that could be heard from inside. “Nice one.”

Valerie shot him a glare and guided her hoverboard forward, aiming a couple more blasts at the robot’s head. Seeing his chance, Danny fished out the Fenton thermos from his belt, pressing the button and—

 _SMACK._ Pain clouded Danny’s vision as he tasted the dirt once more. Curse those damned arms. Hoisting himself up onto his elbows, trying to ignore the ectoplasm dripping down from his injured shoulder, Danny glanced up behind him just in time to watch Val slammed likewise down into the dirt, digging a rut in the grass in her wake. However, Technus’s arm didn’t let go. Danny rose to a hovering position just as the robot lifted her up, only to send her straight down into the ground. 

“HEY,” Danny screamed, his heart leaping into his throat. That didn’t look pretty. Before his shocked brain could fully catch up, Danny’s arms found the Fenton thermos, sucking a protesting Technus into the trap. Danny dropped the thermos on the spot, hand flying to his shoulder in an attempt to staunch the flow of ectoplasm, before zooming over to where Val lay on the ground. _Please, be okay, be okay,_ Danny pleaded to… well, whoever, if anyone, was listening. 

As Danny approached, Val managed to lift herself into a sitting position, groaning. Immediately, something in Danny’s core relaxed—she looked like she was fine, but he still wanted to make sure. Landing a couple of feet away, Danny took a cautious step forward. “Hey, Val, you alright—“

“Get away, ghost,” Val growled, immediately whipping her head around to give him a death glare. Her hand, Danny noticed, almost too late, was reaching for her ecto-gun.

Danny immediately took a step back, putting his hands up and biting back a wince from the twinge of pain in his shoulder this brought him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, I was just trying to see if you needed any help—“

“And I’m fine, no thanks to you,” she spat. 

“What do you mean, _no thanks?_ I literally just—“

 _“Valerie Gray?”_ a voice behind them gasped.

Instantly, ghost and hunter whirled around to face none other than Paulina—and her phone, which, Danny realized with a jolt, was still filming. He turned his gaze back to Val and froze. Her helmet—it had been shaken off by the impact, and her expression—he’d never seen this expression on her face before. Fear. _No, no, no, this is bad—_

 _“You’re_ the Red Huntress?” Paulina shrieked. “You dare hurt the ghost boy?” 

For a moment, silence echoed through the park. Then, Danny sprang into action, phasing through Paulina’s hands to swipe the offending electronic device. “Hey!” Paulina’s voice protested as Danny tapped the delete button on the video. “That is _my_ —”

Danny whirled around and slammed Paulina’s phone back into her palm, effectively shocking her into silence. “No one finds out,” he hissed. “That is Val’s secret and Val’s alone. You hear me?”

A flash of movement occurred in Danny’s peripheral vision, and he turned to find the ghost hunter in question on her feet, an ecto-gun pointed firmly at his head, all traces of fear vanished. “Leave it to me, ghost.”

Paulina grabbed Danny’s wrist, causing him to gasp in pain. “Look at you! She hurt you! She’s a menace! She’s—”

“Just misguided,” Danny stated, wrenching himself from Paulina’s grasp. “Please—”

“I can’t believe I ever hung out with you,” Paulina snapped, this time in Val’s direction. “Just wait until the rest of the A-Listers find out about this. You are _so_ dead.”

Val’s aim shifted from Danny to Paulina. “You conniving BITCH—”

Eyes widening, Danny flew in between the two girls, obscuring the aim of Valerie’s shot. “Come on, please, just listen. Val, put down the gun. She’s not worth it—”

“Maybe not, but _you_ are,” Val shot back, her grip on the gun unwavering. 

“Don’t you dare,” Paulina screeched. “I’ll _kill_ you—”

“And you,” Danny added, turning back to the queen bee. “Please, just stop. Val doesn’t really hurt me, she’s fine, and she often helps.” _Well, maybe not this time,_ Danny mentally added, but now was not the time to bring that up.

Suddenly, pain shot through Danny’s side, causing him to double over, gasping and clutching at the wound. Damn, that really hurt. 

“Ghost boy!” Paulina screamed. In the corner of his eye, Danny saw her start towards him, but stop in her tracks, probably due to the threat of Val’s ecto-gun.

“So I don’t really hurt you, huh,” Valerie sneered. 

Danny attempted to straighten up to look her eye, but another wave of searing pain caused him to fold back in on himself. “You’re—not—helping things,” he gasped.

“What do you mean, helping things? The way I see it, I’m doing the world a favor by getting rid of ecto-scum like you.”

Gritting his teeth, Danny shot her a glare. “Could you shut up for one second? I’m trying to keep your secret for you—”

“Secret? And why would you care, huh? What would you know about secrets, _ghost_?”

Danny almost laughed at the irony. _More than you know._ In fact, Danny was really starting to wish he could use Fenton right about now to possibly calm Valerie down. His lips quirked upward, despite the pain. She was something else—just about the only person in the world, besides his own parents, of course, to prefer Fenton to his heroic counterpart. 

Impatient, Valerie took a step forward and touched the barrel of her ecto-gun to Danny’s nose. “Why should you care? Why? I wish you’d just—just—” She sniffled, and Danny was struck with the uncomfortable realization that she was crying.

“Hey, look, Val, I won’t go anywhere, ok? You’ve got me. You’ve got me right now, alright, so why don’t you just go take care of Paulina, and I won’t go anywhere. Ok?”

“I don’t make deals with ghosts,” Val growled, shoving the gun further, but with noticeably trembling hands. 

“Paulina first,” Danny said. “Alright?”

For a long, heart-pounding moment, Valerie didn’t move, her eyes still gazing down at him with palpable hatred. Danny bit his lip, trying to keep still despite the growing pain in his shoulder and side. Finally, Valerie tore her eyes away and lowered the gun, taking a step in Paulina’s direction. She raised her head, only to find—

Paulina was gone.

Danny cursed, causing Valerie to whip her head back around. Before she could lash out, Danny went invisible and shot towards the direction of Sam’s house as fast as he could given the circumstances, still keeping a hand covering his injured side. For a horrifying second, Danny thought she could see him, her gun tracing the trail of ectoplasm he left behind, but finally, he left the park behind, Valerie and the rut she’d made in the grass fading from view. Danny breathed a sigh of relief, before gasping in pain at the motion and clutching his side harder. _Stupid,_ he scolded himself.

As he raced above the streets of Amity Park, Danny tried to wrap his head around what had just happened. Paulina. She knew. He bit back a bitter laugh. For all the times he’d spent panicking over just what he’d do if she ever found out his secret, he’d never expected, never even considered, that it wouldn’t even be _his_ secret she discovered. Instead, it had been Valerie’s—and of course, while in Phantom form, she’d never accept his help, even though this was bad, this was _really_ bad, and what was he going to do—oh God, he’d have to face _Paulina._

All of this would be so much easier if Val would just believe him. Danny bit his lip, fighting to keep himself aloft after another burst of pain. What would it take for her to realize he didn’t want to hurt her? Why did she insist on hating him so much?

Danny blinked and shook his head, only to find himself at his destination, hurtling directly towards Sam’s mansion. Gritting his teeth, Danny phased through the outer wall and landed with a _thump_ right on Sam’s bed. His vision blurring, Danny managed to make out a shout of surprise, then Sam’s concerned face peering down at him.

“Val, again,” Danny groaned, by way of explanation. He then promptly passed out.


End file.
